I'm running Zeitgeist, and we're about to start adventure 2. My players are going to go nuts when I share Nevard's visions with them after the attack at dawn square. They were really into the prophesies from adventure 6 of WotBS. I'd like to make the payoff for these as rewarding as possible, so that the players can eventually link them to events in the story. But I'm having trouble figuring out what some of it refers to. I'd appreciate your thoughts.
“I saw a dark figure, standing atop Cauldron Hill, towering over our city. The sun set, and he cast a shadow across Parity Lake, stretching northwest, into the sea, beyond the horizon. He is born in our city, but his ultimate goal is elsewhere. And also things moved in his shadow—indeed, his shadow moved before he did, for while he was mighty, he was controlled by others. “I saw smoke hiding his face, for he was made mighty by industry. In my vision, a king chased him out to sea and defeated him by slicing him free from his shadow. But the cauldron had already shattered, and many thousands were drowned and devoured in its roil.
This part seems straightforward enough, Borne comes out of cauldron hill, and the king sends him to the Dreaming.
“I saw three birds alight on the peak, the first of black silk, the second of black steel, both weeping blood. But the third was made of stars, and it sang many songs
If I had to guess, the first bird is Reed Macbannin, the second bird is Borne and the third bird is... the portal to the Gyre? I'm not sure about this one
“A woman sat on a leather couch in a waiting room, surrounded by red curtains. She held a gold coin and rolled it across the back of her fingers. A pick lay against the side of the couch. I asked her what she was waiting for, and she answered in a language I didn’t know, saying, ‘The place I’m going isn’t here yet.’”
This one seems to me like it's about Xambria and Shijen, but I'm not sure about the leather couch and red curtains? Is that supposed to just be like she's an archeologist with red hair?
“A trumpeter carried a lantern onto the stage of a darkened theater, and the people gathered for his performance applauded, then lit lanterns of their own. The theater never got bright enough for him to see their faces.”
This one... no idea really. Is this about the convocation on Mutravir Island?
“One man tore himself in two, and his twin selves fought over a woman, tearing her into three, who ran away. Mice skittered around them, collecting cheese fallen amid the rails of a trainyard. Then a train roared down the track past me, but it had no conductor driving it. In the distance it derailed, and crushed two of the women, but he couldn’t which of the three survived.”
This one, similarly not sure. At the surface, it seems to be about Nic and Kasvarina. One can see how Nic is split in two, and how Kasvarina is split in two, but I'm not sure who the third Kasvarina would be? No idea about the mice and the train stuff...
“A man carrying a bronze staff with three keyholes was assailed by swords and arrows and fire, but nothing killed him. He began to take off his robes, revealing tiger fur beneath them, while stars fell from the sky all around him. Then the sky was dark, and when the sun should have risen, instead a pale glowing cloud floated in the dark.”
This one seems pretty clear. The man is Roland Stanfield, he becomes a rakshasa when he dies in adventure 9. The bronze staff mirrors the Bronze of Colossus Cell. I'm not sure about the three keyholes though (Just the other cells? not sure if that really makes sense)
“Finally, I saw a tyrant and murderer in prison, hanging from twelve chains and hooks that pierced her feet, her legs, her thighs, her shoulders, her arms, and her hands. But the thirteenth hook that sealed her mouth swung loose, and it fluttered in the breeze as she whispered a map that led everywhere.”
This one makes sense, it's Ashima Shimtu
Thanks in advance for sharing your thinking on this.
